1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for applying a computer-readable media strip to an existing credit card by a merchant, and a method of providing a customer with a portable and rugged computer readable medium without the need to provide an additional card to bear the medium.
2. Related Art
A growing problem, and an increasing need, arises out of the inconvenience of having to carry a number of credit cards serving a number of purposes. Increasingly, new cards are being issued for specialized purposes.
One example is the cards given to hotel residents in lieu of keys to gain access to hotel rooms and services. These cards currently contain a stripe of magnetic media which may be read by a door control device to allow access to a room or service. The media, in fact, uses only a relatively small area of the attendant card.
The purpose of the card lies in the need to provide a customer with a computer readable medium that is rugged and portablexe2x80x94something the customer will not mind bringing with him to the merchant on subsequent visits.
Another example is the check cashing card given by grocery store chains. The check cashing card has a media strip such as a magnetic strip or a bar code strip. Likewise, libraries and video rental stores issue cards to their patrons for tracking purposes. In the same vein, office buildings or other facilities use token-based security in which employees are issued cards or the like having on them computer readable media.
It would seem that there is a critical mass with respect to the number of cards that one may be able to pocket conveniently. A single card has a thickness of approx. 0.050 inches including embossing. Ten cards would have a thickness of xc2xd inch and 20 cards a thickness of 1 inch. An inch of cards, for example, is not convenient to carry in a hip wallet. As cards continue to proliferate, the problem of card management therefore continues to grow.
One object of the invention, among others, is to provide a solution to the foregoing problem of the need for one person to carry too many cards. According to the preferred embodiment of the invention, supplemental media are applied to existing cards at a merchant location. The existing cards are typically credit cards issued by financial institutions. Affixing supplemental media is simplified by an applicator apparatus according to the invention.
The invention is also realized in a method of providing a customer with a computer readable medium in which a merchant takes advantage of the supplemental media to provide convenience to customers.
The method as revealed in this application of using existing cards for more than a single application is more cost efficient and space efficient. Also, certain economies may be achieved both with respect to cost as well as material consumption, by using these cards for more than a single purpose.
The manner in which the above-identified objectives and others are realized will become apparent by way of the following description of exemplary embodiments, taken in conjunction with the enclosed drawing figures.